Disney for credit unions: Provide a promise, not a product

Walt Disney was an innovator and a visionary. He was also one of the most successful business leaders of his time. But don’t be fooled into thinking it was easy, Disney’s success only came after several failed business attempts. Like most intelligent entrepreneurs, Disney looked at his failures as opportunities to learn. In one interview, Disney outlined what he called his “8 secrets to success.” Over the next few months, we’ll take a look at those 8 secrets and how you can apply them to your credit union. We’ll look at the first one in this article.

Secret #1: Provide a Promise, Not a Product.

The story is that Walt Disney was sitting on a bench in a park watching his daughters ride a carousel when he came up with the idea for Disney World. He noticed amusement parks and state fairs were always dumpy and poorly organized, and the employees were typically rude and disinterested. His wife once asked, “Why do you want to build an amusement park? They’re so dirty.” Walt’s reply was, “That’s the point. Mine won’t be.” From day one, Disney has focused on “the experience” as a key component to increasing the value of its parks.

The most successful credit unions we work with are those that focus on fulfilling a mission. Often in our live events we tell the story of Greater Abbeville Federal Credit Union, a $13 million credit union that is looked upon by their peers as a standard of excellence. You would think being one of the smallest financial institutions in the market would be a challenge. So how do they do it?

Several years ago the board and management of the credit union adopted a new mission statement: “To be the source of financial hope” for the community. When the staff bought into that mission and started living that out everyday when working with members was when the tide turned. Today, the marketing of the credit union focuses on the mission and what that means to the community, rather than the rate promotion du jour for auto loans.

Think about the many reasons consumers are soured towards financial institutions and then take a line from the Disney playbook and say: “Mine won’t be.”